At LAB, every child is known and their well-being is placed centre stage.
We operate a ‘schools within schools’ model, and our academy is divided into three colleges: Sancho, Fawcett and Airy. Each college is led by a Head of College: an academy Vice Principal who is supported by their own pastoral, academic and administrative team. For parents and carers, this structure ensures that you are able to gain access to the actual adults who work with your children on a daily basis and this supports stronger working partnerships between the academy and home.
Each college is fully comprehensive and, when we reach full capacity, will include 300 students.
Tracking progress, identifying barriers to learning and building the strong relationships we value so much between school and home is much easier within said college model, and the benefits felt by all stakeholders are easy to discern.
Our inclusion team works across all colleges to provide bespoke support for our students with special educational needs. We have access to our own Trust Ed Psychs and can draw upon the expertise of our highly skilled SEND professionals to meet the needs of all students.
Every member of our academy family works together to achieve success resulting in a strong sense of belonging.
Our colleges are all named after local Greenwich individuals who achieved a great deal in their lifetime and lived in accordance with our values. They were selected by our very first set of pupils, our Founders for their own Year 6 summer project.
Sir George Airy (1801-1892) was an English mathematician and astronomer. His many achievements include work on planetary orbits, measuring the mean density of the Earth, and, in his role as Astronomer Royal, establishing Greenwich as the location of the prime meridian. In 1835 Airy was appointed director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, a post he would hold for more than 45 years. During this time, he designed the legendary Airy Transit Circle telescope. Airy’s work stands as testament to the intellectual curiosity, rigour and academic precision which underpins Scientific investigation.
Millicent Fawcett (1847 – 1929) was a leading Suffragist and campaigner for equal rights for women. She led the biggest suffrage organisation, the non-violent NUWSS from 1890-1919, and played a key role in gaining women the vote. She was educated in Blackheath and carried a passion for education all her life, eventually helped to found Newnham College, Cambridge. In February of this year, Fawcett was announced as the winner of the BBC Radio 4 poll for the most influential woman of the past 100 years. Over 90 years after her death, Fawcett continues to inspire people everywhere to fight for gender equality.
Ignatius Sancho was born on a slave ship around 1729 and taken to London, where he worked as a slave in Greenwich until the 2nd Duke of Montagu, impressed by Sancho’s intellect; not only encouraged him to read, but also lent him books from his personal library at Blackheath.
Once educated, Sancho refused to tolerate his lack of freedom and ran away, eventually becoming the first black person of African origin to vote in parliamentary elections in Britain. After his death in 1780, Sancho’s letters were published in a book which was used widely as evidence to support the movement to end slavery. Sancho’s life and writings persist as a symbol of the humanity of Africans, the immorality of the slave trade, and the emancipating power of education.
